Could this 43,000 year old bone of a cave bear be a musical instrument? If so, it could be evidence that Neanderthals were musically-inclined!

The Divje Babe flute is a cave bear femur pierced by spaced holes that was found at the Divje Babe archeological park located near Cerkno in northwestern Slovenia. It has been suggested that it is the world’s oldest known musical instrument, but this is in dispute. The continuing dispute notwithstanding, the artifact remains on prominent public display as a flute in the National Museum of Slovenia (Narodni Muzej Slovenije) in Ljubljana. The museum’s visitor leaflet maintains that manufacture by Neanderthals “is reliably proven”.

The only problem with trying to play a tune on it is that, if it is a musical instrument, it's not full anymore. But, the reason I believe it could be is that, if it were complete, the instrument would be capable ofplaying our diatonic scale. So, it could play most songs that we are familar with.

If that's true it's even more amazing. Not only would Neanderthals have been musically inclined, they would have developed something close to what we have.